


Stuck With You

by allmylovesatonce



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmylovesatonce/pseuds/allmylovesatonce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the first day of work flashback, Mindy gets the chance to confront Danny about some things going on in the office.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck With You

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kind of combining an idea I had after the midseason finale with a prompt I got on tumblr. As always, I'd love to know what you think!

As much as she enjoyed her job, some days nothing made Mindy happier than getting to go home. She actually hadn’t been home the night before. She’d pulled an all nighter at the hospital, having to rush back to the office in order to see her first patient. By the time she got to leave, all she really wanted was to return to her apartment of solitude and watch TV and drink wine until she passed out from exhaustion. She figured it wouldn’t take too long. All she really wanted was just the chance to relax.

Danny was packing up his things. He wasn’t exactly doing so quickly. He didn’t relish the idea of going home to his lonely apartment. His new apartment didn’t really feel like home yet. Every night when he laid in bed, he missed the presence of another person. The nights he had to spend at the hospital had become his favorite. He couldn’t notice the huge void in his life if he was focusing on his patients. He slowly trudged toward the elevator, promising himself that tonight when he drank himself into a stupor, he’d make sure he at least made it to his bed before he passed out.

Mindy walked toward the elevator. As she approached she saw the doors closing quickly. She ran at them and stuck her arm in between in hopes that the doors would reopen. She felt the rush of victory as the doors parted for her. The wind was quickly taken out of her sails when she noted Danny in the elevator. She rolled her eyes and stepped in, standing as far away from him as possible. She heard him sigh as the doors closed again. Tiredness had made her lose what little filter she already had. “Gee, if I’d known you were in this elevator, I think I’d have let it go on without me.”

Danny’s head whipped in her direction. He had no idea where this was coming from. He hadn’t said a word to her yet. Hell, he didn’t think he’d said much to her all day. In his frustration, he responded. “Well, if I’d have known you were coming, I’d have hit the close door button much faster.” He could hear her clicking her tongue on the other side of the elevator. Two could play at this game. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her turn toward him.

“Well you know what? I – ” She was cut off by the abrupt stopping of the elevator. They both were shaken by the sudden stop. The lights flickered and went off, quickly replaced by emergency lighting.

“What the hell?” Mindy was freaking out. This was not part of the plan. She just wanted to go home. She looked over at Danny. He looked as confused as she was. She watched as he approached the panel and tried to use the intercom button. Naturally, it wasn’t working. He looked back at her and shook his head.

She dramatically sighed and slid down the wall of the elevator into a sitting position. This was too much right now. Danny was busy trying to get through to someone on the other end. He was yelling crazily into the speaker.

“Danny, it doesn’t work. Just let it go,” she begged. She couldn’t take his yelling for much longer. “Why don’t you just use your cellphone and call someone?”

Danny pointed at her emphatically. “Good idea.”

From her sitting position, she threw her arms up and smiled smugly. “I know. I’m often full of them.”

Danny laughed as he looked through his messenger bag. He felt in his pockets and came up empty. He picked up his messenger bag and dumped its contents on the floor. No phone in sight. “Damn it. I must have left it on my desk.” Danny punched the wall next to him. He may not have been eager to get home, but he really didn’t want to be stuck in an elevator. Especially not with Mindy. He slid to the floor and mirrored her position. He looked over at her. “Wait, why can’t you use your phone? Isn’t it like permanently glued to your hand?”

Mindy glared back at him. “Haha, very funny. And I would, but it died about five hours ago and my work charger needs to be replaced.”

“Well maybe if it wasn’t glued to your hand, it wouldn’t have died so quickly…” Danny muttered under his breath.

Mindy heard him though. “Or maybe if I’d gotten to go home last night instead of spending it at the hospital, I could have charged my phone. As it was, I was busy helping people. Maybe get off your technologically challenged high horse for once.”

Danny stared back at her. He didn’t know how they always ended up in fights like this. They were colleagues. They’d had civil moments together. It wasn’t all fights and jabs. But somehow, he always said something to piss her off and she laid into him. Or she would say something to get under his skin and he’d let her have it. He felt bad about, but he was already so messed up from his wife leaving that he didn’t really care. All he really cared about now was his patients and how quickly he could start drinking. It wasn’t the healthiest of attitudes, but it was all he had right now.

And he didn’t need his bubbly, annoying, borderline screechy, and (to his dismay) attractive coworker to be constantly harassing him. Maybe she felt the same way. There were lots of times he consciously made notes to stop yelling at her, to stop getting his digs in so they could work peacefully. But then she’d make some comment and without any thought, he’d respond as bitingly as possible. They were like children.

Mindy couldn’t take the silence. She really wanted to have a working phone. She looked over at Danny. He was either super deep in thought or his mind was completely blank. She couldn’t really tell which it was. She could never really get a handle on him. She thought for a while that she did, but then everything flipped on its head. After he begged her to stay and work there, she thought they’d get along pretty well. And they did. Until one day he missed work. Then he came back and was purely a jerk. Nothing she said went without needless comment from him. It got to the point where she couldn’t take it. Sometimes she’d make some comment at his expense just so he knew what it felt like. Then he’d fire back. She couldn’t take the endless back and forth. They were awful to each other. She felt bad, but never bad enough to stop sticking up for herself when he was being a dick. She turned her head back to look forward and sighed.

“What?” Danny whined.

“I just don’t get it,” Mindy explained.

“Get what? How the elevator stopped?”

“No,” Mindy started. “I don’t get how you can be such a dick.”

Danny looked over at her quickly, angry words at the tip of his tongue.

She continued before he could. “I mean when I started working here a couple months ago, you were a total dick. You were. Then after you attempted to get me fired and pulled out all the stops to convince me to stay, you seemed like under that gristle and icy exterior, a warm heart actually beat. We had a nice moment. It seemed like we could get along. And for a couple of weeks, we did. You were nice and considerate, still a bit frosty at times, but nothing like before. And then all the sudden, Dr. Dick Castellano returned. Now I don’t have a day of peace without you calling me out on something or trying to make my life hell. I don’t get it, Danny. If this is your way of trying to drive me out again, why be nice to me and convince me to stay?”

Danny remained silent. He had only let it slip to Dr. Shulman that his wife had left him. The rest of the office had no right to his personal business. He couldn’t stop the feelings of guilt from bubbling up. He did feel bad that he apparently made her life such hell. How could he explain that his life was hell and it was just how he reacted to things without letting Nosy Lahiri know everything? Before he could start explaining himself, she continued.

“I like working here. I love this job. I like everyone else that we work with. I felt for a while that I would like you too, but it’s hard to like someone who is seemingly hell-bent on calling out every little thing wrong with you. I mean what did I ever do to you, Danny? I don’t get it!”

He saw no way out. He had to tell her. “It wasn’t you,” he said before taking a long pause.

“Thanks, that’s so helpful,” Mindy scoffed.

“I wasn’t finished,” Danny said, getting a little loud. He noticed the look on her face and tried to calm himself back down. He sat there for a long time, trying to figure out a way to explain it without giving her a full explanation. He really wanted to keep his personal life separate from his work life and the minute she gave him the sympathy eyes, those lives would be merged. She gaped at him, urging him to talk. He shook his head quickly and cleared his throat. “My wife left me.”

“What?” Mindy asked quietly, turning her body to look at him.

Once that was out, he could feel the rest of it following. “I thought we were working to fix our marriage. But apparently I was the only one that cared. And so she left me.”

Mindy didn’t know what to say. She felt guilty now that she’d listed off his offenses when he had a ton of shit going on in his personal life. She scooted closer and put a hand on his arm. He looked up at her curiously. She smiled sympathetically. “I’m really sorry, Danny. That sucks.”

He could feel tears choking him. They usually came in his late night drinking. He was pretty used to crying lately, but he didn’t want to cry in front of Mindy. He nodded his head, not looking at her.

They sat in silence for a long time. Eventually, Mindy removed her hand, but she stayed where she was sitting close to him. He kind of wished she’d move back to her corner. He was more comfortable that way. Even with all the crap he was going through, he couldn’t deny his attraction to Mindy. It was small and it wasn’t something he figured he’d ever act on. But it was there. Maybe that factored into why he always acted out against her. It was confusing and it was easier to be rude to her and distance himself from her than try to understand why he was attracted to her while reconciling that with the pain of his wife leaving.

Once he felt like he could speak without tears coming, he spoke again. “Listen, I get that I’m a dick a lot of the time. And I’m sorry for that,” he started. She looked over at him, surprised by the silence breaking. “It’s just been hard lately. I can’t guarantee that now that you’ve called me out on it that I’ll get any better. I’m still really angry. I’m sure I’ll still be a dick for a while. But I heard you, and I am sorry.”

Mindy reached out and patted his arm. “I think your wife leaving you gets you a pass to be a dick for a while. Just hopefully it won’t be forever. When you’re being nice and considerate, you’re a pretty great guy, Danny.” He looked back at her and smiled weakly. “I’ll do my best to be less rude to you. Although, if you’re still going to be a dick, my gut reaction to respond in the same way will probably kick in.” Danny laughed. She joined in.

“Let’s make a deal,” she offered. He looked at her, his curiosity piqued. “I will do my best not to be a jerk to you and you will do your best not to be a jerk to me, but if either of us slips up we get to unleash hell on the other as usual.”

Danny smiled, very amused by her proposition. He held his hand out, “Deal.”

She smiled back and shook his hand. “Deal.”

They weren’t sitting there much longer before the elevator started moving again. They jumped up and grabbed their things, eager to get out of there. The doors opened and maintenance men and a couple cops greeted them. As Mindy left the elevator, she remembered her original plan to race home to be alone. She looked at Danny. He still looked forlorn, and maybe a bit raw. As they walked from the building, she nudged him with her shoulder. “Hey, how would you feel about getting a drink?”

Danny looked at her and noted her sincerity. The thought of not going home to his sad apartment and not having to drink alone was incredibly appealing. He smiled gratefully and nodded. “You know what? I’d like that.”

He knew that their time trapped together would by no means fix the hostility that reigned in the office, but maybe letting her see the real him wouldn’t be the worst thing ever.

**Author's Note:**

> You can always find me here: http://allmylovesatonce.tumblr.com/


End file.
